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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 01
I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
5
10 15
20
25 30 Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
60 but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
65 I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight 70 celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for. I cannot get by
with only
75 a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
80 and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
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Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
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4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone.
I abandoned my sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue
and pink houses, past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I
walked in my own strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not
a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before
me, blocks away. I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted
with a sadness I had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had
seemed vast, dark, and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
Baylor moves the reader through her poem “I’m in Charge of Celebrations” by using
A
B
C
D
vivid descriptive details.
key words and phrase repetition.
short line length.
varied punctuation.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 02
My Watch
An Instructive Little Tale
by Mark Twain
1
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and
without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its anatomy imperishable.
But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized
messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by
guess.
2
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler’s to set it by the exact time, and the
head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then
he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.”
3
I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect
time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes
slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him
in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the
shameful deed.
4
My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the
week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the
shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the
rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into
November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up
house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide
it. I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated.
5
After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that
degree that it ticked like a tolling bell. I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner. I went to a watchmaker again.
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6
He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was
“swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well,
but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a
barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear
myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the
land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing
down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again. So at
last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges’ stand all right and
just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had
done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch,
and I took this instrument to another watchmaker.
7
He said the king-bolt was broken. He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch
gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and
then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And
every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days,
but finally took the watch to another watchmaker.
8
He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass;
and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He
fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to
ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the
time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.
9
This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not
straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling. He made these
things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now
and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would
let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway
begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch. She would
reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang.
10 I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he
took her to pieces. Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have
paid out two or three thousand for repairs.
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11 While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old
acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and
then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.
12 He said: “She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench
on the safety-valve!”
13 My uncle William used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had
run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a
chance at it.
When the narrator says, “For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up
such a barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could
not hear myself think for the disturbance . . .” he is using all of these literary devices
except
A
B
C
D
onomatopoeia.
simile.
understatement.
personification.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 03
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
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36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
In the poems, the poets address similar topics by
A
B
C
D
providing the reader with historical context.
focusing on a specific incident from the speakers’ experiences.
using figurative language to create a playful mood.
presenting detailed descriptions of all the characters mentioned in the poems.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 04
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence from lines 27–30 of “The Grammar of Silk.”
This evidently was a sanctuary, / a place
where women confined with children /
conferred, consulted the oracle, / the
stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
What is the meaning of the phrase “the stone tablets of the latest pattern books”?
A
B
C
D
The pattern books at that store look as if they are made of stone.
The pattern books are regarded as objects of great authority.
The pattern books have been passed down through the generations.
The pattern books are so thick that they are difficult to carry.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 01
I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
5
10 15
20
25 30 Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight
celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for.
I cannot get by
with only
a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
60 65 70 75 80 It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
Back to Table of Contents
Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
Back to Table of Contents
4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was
rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone. I abandoned my
sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue and pink houses,
past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I walked in my own
strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before me, blocks away.
I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted with a sadness I
had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had seemed vast, dark,
and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
What dramatic convention best describes both works?
A
B
C
D
dialogue
monologue
speech
aside
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 02
I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
5
10 15
20
25 30 Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight
celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for.
I cannot get by
with only
a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
60 65 70 75 80 It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
Back to Table of Contents
Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
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4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was
rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone. I abandoned my
sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue and pink houses,
past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I walked in my own
strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before me, blocks away.
I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted with a sadness I
had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had seemed vast, dark,
and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
How would the narrator of “I’m in Charge of Celebrations” likely react if he or
she experienced what the narrator of “Skunk Dreams” experienced?
A
B
C
D
He would consider it another cause for celebration.
He would be even more upset.
He would be embarrassed and never admit that he had been sprayed by a skunk.
He would be concerned for the skunk, and he would try to keep it as a pet.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 03
My Watch
An Instructive Little Tale
by Mark Twain
1
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and
without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its anatomy imperishable.
But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized
messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by
guess.
2
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler’s to set it by the exact time, and the
head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then
he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.”
3
I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect
time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes
slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him
in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the
shameful deed.
4
My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the
week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the
shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the
rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into
November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up
house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide
it. I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated.
5
After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that
degree that it ticked like a tolling bell. I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner. I went to a watchmaker again.
Back to Table of Contents
6
He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was
“swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well,
but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a
barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear
myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the
land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing
down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again. So at
last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges’ stand all right and
just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had
done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch,
and I took this instrument to another watchmaker.
7
He said the king-bolt was broken. He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch
gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and
then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And
every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days,
but finally took the watch to another watchmaker.
8
He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass;
and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He
fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to
ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the
time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.
9
This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not
straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling. He made these
things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now
and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would
let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway
begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch. She would
reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang.
10 I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he
took her to pieces. Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have
paid out two or three thousand for repairs.
Back to Table of Contents
11 While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old
acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and
then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.
12 He said: “She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench
on the safety-valve!”
13 My uncle William used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had
run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a
chance at it.
In the last paragraph the narrator references what his uncle William said in order to
show that
A
B
C
D
he will pay more money for his next watch.
watches are as difficult to maintain as horses.
he is ready to quit trying to have the watch fixed.
his uncle has also tried to fix the watch.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 04
My Watch
An Instructive Little Tale
by Mark Twain
1
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and
without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its anatomy imperishable.
But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized
messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by
guess.
2
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler’s to set it by the exact time, and the
head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then
he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.”
3
I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect
time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes
slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him
in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the
shameful deed.
4
My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the
week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the
shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the
rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into
November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up
house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide
it. I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated.
5
After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that
degree that it ticked like a tolling bell. I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner. I went to a watchmaker again.
Back to Table of Contents
6
He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was
“swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well,
but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a
barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear
myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the
land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing
down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again. So at
last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges’ stand all right and
just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had
done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch,
and I took this instrument to another watchmaker.
7
He said the king-bolt was broken. He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch
gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and
then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And
every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days,
but finally took the watch to another watchmaker.
8
He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass;
and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He
fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to
ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the
time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.
9
This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not
straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling. He made these
things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now
and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would
let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway
begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch. She would
reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang.
10 I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he
took her to pieces. Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have
paid out two or three thousand for repairs.
Back to Table of Contents
11 While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old
acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and
then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.
12 He said: “She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench
on the safety-valve!”
13 My uncle William used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had
run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a
chance at it.
One indication that this was not written in recent times is the comparison of the watch
to a
A
B
C
D
pair of scissors.
musket.
spider’s web.
bee.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 05
My Watch
An Instructive Little Tale
by Mark Twain
1
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and
without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its anatomy imperishable.
But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized
messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by
guess.
2
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler’s to set it by the exact time, and the
head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then
he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.”
3
I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect
time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes
slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him
in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the
shameful deed.
4
My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the
week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the
shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the
rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into
November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up
house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide
it. I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated.
5
After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that
degree that it ticked like a tolling bell. I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner. I went to a watchmaker again.
Back to Table of Contents
6
He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was
“swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well,
but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a
barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear
myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the
land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing
down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again. So at
last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges’ stand all right and
just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had
done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch,
and I took this instrument to another watchmaker.
7
He said the king-bolt was broken. He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch
gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and
then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And
every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days,
but finally took the watch to another watchmaker.
8
He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass;
and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He
fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to
ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the
time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.
9
This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not
straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling. He made these
things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now
and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would
let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway
begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch. She would
reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang.
10 I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he
took her to pieces. Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have
paid out two or three thousand for repairs.
Back to Table of Contents
11 While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old
acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and
then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.
12 He said: “She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench
on the safety-valve!”
13 My uncle William used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had
run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a
chance at it.
What literary device is the narrator using when he says, “Within the week it sickened to
a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade”?
A
B
C
D
repetition
symbolism
irony
personification
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 06
My Watch
An Instructive Little Tale
by Mark Twain
1
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and
without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its anatomy imperishable.
But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized
messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by
guess.
2
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler’s to set it by the exact time, and the
head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then
he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.”
3
I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect
time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes
slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him
in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the
shameful deed.
4
My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the
week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the
shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the
rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into
November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up
house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide
it. I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated.
5
After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that
degree that it ticked like a tolling bell. I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner. I went to a watchmaker again.
Back to Table of Contents
6
He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was
“swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well,
but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a
barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear
myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the
land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing
down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again. So at
last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges’ stand all right and
just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had
done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch,
and I took this instrument to another watchmaker.
7
He said the king-bolt was broken. He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch
gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and
then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And
every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days,
but finally took the watch to another watchmaker.
8
He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass;
and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He
fixed it, and gave it a fresh start. It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to
ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the
time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired.
9
This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not
straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling. He made these
things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now
and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would
let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway
begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch. She would
reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang.
10 I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he
took her to pieces. Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have
paid out two or three thousand for repairs.
Back to Table of Contents
11 While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old
acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and
then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.
12 He said: “She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench
on the safety-valve!”
13 My uncle William used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had
run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a
chance at it.
Throughout this story, the author references periods of time in order to
A
B
C
D
identify the historical period in which the narrator lived.
justify the narrator’s lack of timeliness.
illustrate the narrator’s desire to learn watch repair.
emphasize the magnitude of the narrator’s ordeal.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 07
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
In “The Grammar of Silk,” Song is making a statement about the need for women to
establish a sense of community for themselves. What does the speaker do that best illustrates this idea?
A
The speaker describes the sewing group as a sanctuary in stanza 3 and the sewing school as a refuge in the last stanza.
B
In stanza 2, the speaker uses such words as tough, awkward, and deciphered to illustrate the difficulty involved in sewing.
C
The speaker tells about an experience that happened when she was young rather than describing a more recent experience.
D
The speaker makes references to music to show that she would have rather taken music lessons than learned to sew.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 08
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Which universal theme is addressed in both poems?
A
B
C
D
As they grow older, children become disillusioned by their surroundings.
Children are to be seen and not heard.
As they grow older, children often come to admire their parents.
Children are responsible for themselves.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 09
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Both Hayden and Song imply that love
A
B
C
D
can be expressed without words.
is often conditional.
creates harmony in the home.
leads to disappointment.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Literary Response and Analysis (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 01
I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
5
10 15
20
25 30 Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight
celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for.
I cannot get by
with only
a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
60 65 70 75 80 It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
Back to Table of Contents
Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
Back to Table of Contents
4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone.
I abandoned my sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue
and pink houses, past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I
walked in my own strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not
a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before
me, blocks away. I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted
with a sadness I had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had
seemed vast, dark, and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
What character trait does the speaker in Baylor’s poem reveal about herself when she
says
“I put /myself / in charge. / I choose / my own.”?
A
B
C
D
self-reliance
honesty
compassion
self-destructiveness
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials) (Performance Level:
Advanced) – Question 01
Read these three documents and answer the questions that follow.
Document A
Document B
Fitness Journal Consumer Report:
FitQuest 2000—Everything You Need in a Home Gym!
The editors of Fitness Journal asked me to check out and critique three of the most
popular home gyms. I chose three machines that seemed to target different markets:
the Bodyworks II, the FitQuest 2000, and the Home Training System by Cawells Industries. All three machines are said to fold away and store easily; all three claim a full
body workout can be completed in as little as 30 minutes; and all three stress they can
help the user lose weight and look better.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
FitQuest 2000
Rank: 1
Price: $199 Available: Most large department stores.
The FitQuest 2000 turned out to be a great little home gym. It was not the most expensive, nor did it offer the most options, but it was fast, easy to use, and left me feeling
like I’d had a real workout. The first pleasant surprise was opening the box to find it fully
assembled. The FitQuest easily unpacked and unfolded, and within ten minutes,
I was working out! Using the enclosed wall chart and operating instructions I was able
to perform all 20 of the exercises the machine claims to offer. Note: FitQuest does not
recommend doing all 20 exercises during each workout. The machine is fast. The only
adjustments between exercises are to the incline and the cables, and are simple and
easy to accomplish. Still, when I attempted a “suggested” workout the next day, it
took some hustle to get through it in 30 minutes. However, users could probably still
complete the workout in less than 45 minutes at a reasonable pace. Bottom line: If you
can’t join a gym, this is a good alternative.
Home Training System Rank: 2 Price: $699
Available: Sporting goods stores.
Cawells Industries advertises the Home Training System as “the ultimate home workout
for the serious trainer.” These are not just hollow promises. The first clue that this will be
a “serious” machine is the price tag, a full $500 more than the FitQuest 2000. The Home
Training System does offer almost everything you can think of in a home gym, and its
58 exercises are almost double that offered by the FitQuest or Bodyworks II machines.
The Home Training System provides a genuine workout that nearly rivals what could
be achieved at commercial fitness gyms. However, this is a gym for someone with
plenty of time for training. Changing exercise positions on this machine is cumbersome
and sometimes more of a workout than the exercises themselves. It required almost
two hours to assemble. It is bulky and would only be considered portable by Arnold
Schwarzenegger—maybe. Bottom line: this is a good machine, but if you’ve got this
much time and money, join a gym.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
Bodyworks II
Rank: 3
Price: $129
Available: Most department stores.
The Bodyworks II claims to offer a “superb workout in just a half-hour.” Well, not exactly.
The machine, the least expensive of the three, did provide a good workout. Its 35 positions were slightly more than the FitQuest though less than the Home Training System. It
also came unassembled, but was not as difficult to put together as the Home Training
System. Though some of the exercises were a bit awkward, none seemed dangerous.
Changing positions, however, was somewhat difficult and seemed to make a 30-minute workout unlikely unless limited to three or four exercises. Though the machine is not
bulky and can easily fit under a bed, it is heavy, and unfolding it was a challenge. Its
caster wheels are not adequate for pushing it more than a few feet. Bottom line: You
can get a good workout from this machine, but if you can afford it, spend a little more
for the FitQuest 2000.
Document C
FitQuest 2000 5-Year Limited Warranty
If your FitQuest 2000 fails structurally during normal usage, we will repair or replace
it without charge to you. Parts, cables, and labor are included. This warranty is not
transferable and does not cover the failure of FitQuest 2000 machines used commercially or for institutional purposes. The warranty excludes failure caused by
unreasonable or abusive use, improper assembly following user-performed disassembly, or failure to provide reasonable and necessary care and maintenance.
Please consult the User’s Manual for maintenance and care instructions. FitQuest,
Inc. shall not be liable for shipping or packaging charges to or from the factory for
returned items. To obtain service, contact the FitQuest Customer Service Department at the number provided in the User’s Guide. Users can also write with questions to FitQuest, Inc. Customer Service, P.O. Box 1800, Oceanside, CA, 90000.
Back to Table of Contents
FitQuest 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
All FitQuest products come with a 30-day money back guarantee, less all freight
charges. Returns should be made in the original box. Please include a copy of the
original sales receipt with the date of purchase clearly marked. Make sure that all
parts are returned with the machine. Please attach a letter detailing any damage.
It is requested that you also provide an explanation of why you were dissatisfied with
the machine. This information is optional and will be used by FitQuest only to improve
our products.
Which of the following would most likely not be covered under the warranty in Document C?
A
B
C
D
use by someone who wanted to lose weight
use by a professional injury rehabilitation clinic
use by all members of a large family on a daily basis
use by a teenager who wanted to get stronger
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials) (Performance Level:
Proficient) – Question 01
Read these three documents and answer the questions that follow.
Document A
Document B
Fitness Journal Consumer Report:
FitQuest 2000—Everything You Need in a Home Gym!
The editors of Fitness Journal asked me to check out and critique three of the most
popular home gyms. I chose three machines that seemed to target different markets:
the Bodyworks II, the FitQuest 2000, and the Home Training System by Cawells Industries. All three machines are said to fold away and store easily; all three claim a full
body workout can be completed in as little as 30 minutes; and all three stress they can
help the user lose weight and look better.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
FitQuest 2000
Rank: 1
Price: $199 Available: Most large department stores.
The FitQuest 2000 turned out to be a great little home gym. It was not the most expensive, nor did it offer the most options, but it was fast, easy to use, and left me feeling
like I’d had a real workout. The first pleasant surprise was opening the box to find it fully
assembled. The FitQuest easily unpacked and unfolded, and within ten minutes,
I was working out! Using the enclosed wall chart and operating instructions I was able
to perform all 20 of the exercises the machine claims to offer. Note: FitQuest does not
recommend doing all 20 exercises during each workout. The machine is fast. The only
adjustments between exercises are to the incline and the cables, and are simple and
easy to accomplish. Still, when I attempted a “suggested” workout the next day, it
took some hustle to get through it in 30 minutes. However, users could probably still
complete the workout in less than 45 minutes at a reasonable pace. Bottom line: If you
can’t join a gym, this is a good alternative.
Home Training System Rank: 2 Price: $699
Available: Sporting goods stores.
Cawells Industries advertises the Home Training System as “the ultimate home workout
for the serious trainer.” These are not just hollow promises. The first clue that this will be
a “serious” machine is the price tag, a full $500 more than the FitQuest 2000. The Home
Training System does offer almost everything you can think of in a home gym, and its
58 exercises are almost double that offered by the FitQuest or Bodyworks II machines.
The Home Training System provides a genuine workout that nearly rivals what could
be achieved at commercial fitness gyms. However, this is a gym for someone with
plenty of time for training. Changing exercise positions on this machine is cumbersome
and sometimes more of a workout than the exercises themselves. It required almost
two hours to assemble. It is bulky and would only be considered portable by Arnold
Schwarzenegger—maybe. Bottom line: this is a good machine, but if you’ve got this
much time and money, join a gym.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
Bodyworks II
Rank: 3
Price: $129
Available: Most department stores.
The Bodyworks II claims to offer a “superb workout in just a half-hour.” Well, not exactly.
The machine, the least expensive of the three, did provide a good workout. Its 35 positions were slightly more than the FitQuest though less than the Home Training System. It
also came unassembled, but was not as difficult to put together as the Home Training
System. Though some of the exercises were a bit awkward, none seemed dangerous.
Changing positions, however, was somewhat difficult and seemed to make a 30-minute workout unlikely unless limited to three or four exercises. Though the machine is not
bulky and can easily fit under a bed, it is heavy, and unfolding it was a challenge. Its
caster wheels are not adequate for pushing it more than a few feet. Bottom line: You
can get a good workout from this machine, but if you can afford it, spend a little more
for the FitQuest 2000.
Document C
FitQuest 2000 5-Year Limited Warranty
If your FitQuest 2000 fails structurally during normal usage, we will repair or replace
it without charge to you. Parts, cables, and labor are included. This warranty is not
transferable and does not cover the failure of FitQuest 2000 machines used commercially or for institutional purposes. The warranty excludes failure caused by
unreasonable or abusive use, improper assembly following user-performed disassembly, or failure to provide reasonable and necessary care and maintenance.
Please consult the User’s Manual for maintenance and care instructions. FitQuest,
Inc. shall not be liable for shipping or packaging charges to or from the factory for
returned items. To obtain service, contact the FitQuest Customer Service Department at the number provided in the User’s Guide. Users can also write with questions to FitQuest, Inc. Customer Service, P.O. Box 1800, Oceanside, CA, 90000.
Back to Table of Contents
FitQuest 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
All FitQuest products come with a 30-day money back guarantee, less all freight
charges. Returns should be made in the original box. Please include a copy of the
original sales receipt with the date of purchase clearly marked. Make sure that all
parts are returned with the machine. Please attach a letter detailing any damage.
It is requested that you also provide an explanation of why you were dissatisfied with
the machine. This information is optional and will be used by FitQuest only to improve
our products.
Based on information in Document B, you can tell that the author feels that the Home
Training System
A
B
C
D
lacks most of the benefits that make home gyms desirable.
does not provide users with a good, solid workout.
should be used only by athletes training for competition.
is a gimmick that will not provide any benefits to users.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials) (Performance Level:
Proficient) – Question 02
Read these three documents and answer the questions that follow.
Document A
Document B
Fitness Journal Consumer Report:
FitQuest 2000—Everything You Need in a Home Gym!
The editors of Fitness Journal asked me to check out and critique three of the most
popular home gyms. I chose three machines that seemed to target different markets:
the Bodyworks II, the FitQuest 2000, and the Home Training System by Cawells Industries. All three machines are said to fold away and store easily; all three claim a full
body workout can be completed in as little as 30 minutes; and all three stress they can
help the user lose weight and look better.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
FitQuest 2000
Rank: 1
Price: $199 Available: Most large department stores.
The FitQuest 2000 turned out to be a great little home gym. It was not the most expensive, nor did it offer the most options, but it was fast, easy to use, and left me feeling
like I’d had a real workout. The first pleasant surprise was opening the box to find it fully
assembled. The FitQuest easily unpacked and unfolded, and within ten minutes,
I was working out! Using the enclosed wall chart and operating instructions I was able
to perform all 20 of the exercises the machine claims to offer. Note: FitQuest does not
recommend doing all 20 exercises during each workout. The machine is fast. The only
adjustments between exercises are to the incline and the cables, and are simple and
easy to accomplish. Still, when I attempted a “suggested” workout the next day, it
took some hustle to get through it in 30 minutes. However, users could probably still
complete the workout in less than 45 minutes at a reasonable pace. Bottom line: If you
can’t join a gym, this is a good alternative.
Home Training System Rank: 2 Price: $699
Available: Sporting goods stores.
Cawells Industries advertises the Home Training System as “the ultimate home workout
for the serious trainer.” These are not just hollow promises. The first clue that this will be
a “serious” machine is the price tag, a full $500 more than the FitQuest 2000. The Home
Training System does offer almost everything you can think of in a home gym, and its
58 exercises are almost double that offered by the FitQuest or Bodyworks II machines.
The Home Training System provides a genuine workout that nearly rivals what could
be achieved at commercial fitness gyms. However, this is a gym for someone with
plenty of time for training. Changing exercise positions on this machine is cumbersome
and sometimes more of a workout than the exercises themselves. It required almost
two hours to assemble. It is bulky and would only be considered portable by Arnold
Schwarzenegger—maybe. Bottom line: this is a good machine, but if you’ve got this
much time and money, join a gym.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
Bodyworks II
Rank: 3
Price: $129
Available: Most department stores.
The Bodyworks II claims to offer a “superb workout in just a half-hour.” Well, not exactly.
The machine, the least expensive of the three, did provide a good workout. Its 35 positions were slightly more than the FitQuest though less than the Home Training System. It
also came unassembled, but was not as difficult to put together as the Home Training
System. Though some of the exercises were a bit awkward, none seemed dangerous.
Changing positions, however, was somewhat difficult and seemed to make a 30-minute workout unlikely unless limited to three or four exercises. Though the machine is not
bulky and can easily fit under a bed, it is heavy, and unfolding it was a challenge. Its
caster wheels are not adequate for pushing it more than a few feet. Bottom line: You
can get a good workout from this machine, but if you can afford it, spend a little more
for the FitQuest 2000.
Document C
FitQuest 2000 5-Year Limited Warranty
If your FitQuest 2000 fails structurally during normal usage, we will repair or replace
it without charge to you. Parts, cables, and labor are included. This warranty is not
transferable and does not cover the failure of FitQuest 2000 machines used commercially or for institutional purposes. The warranty excludes failure caused by
unreasonable or abusive use, improper assembly following user-performed disassembly, or failure to provide reasonable and necessary care and maintenance.
Please consult the User’s Manual for maintenance and care instructions. FitQuest,
Inc. shall not be liable for shipping or packaging charges to or from the factory for
returned items. To obtain service, contact the FitQuest Customer Service Department at the number provided in the User’s Guide. Users can also write with questions to FitQuest, Inc. Customer Service, P.O. Box 1800, Oceanside, CA, 90000.
Back to Table of Contents
FitQuest 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
All FitQuest products come with a 30-day money back guarantee, less all freight
charges. Returns should be made in the original box. Please include a copy of the
original sales receipt with the date of purchase clearly marked. Make sure that all
parts are returned with the machine. Please attach a letter detailing any damage.
It is requested that you also provide an explanation of why you were dissatisfied with
the machine. This information is optional and will be used by FitQuest only to improve
our products.
According to Document C, the FitQuest warranty does not include
A
B
C
D
machines which have a manufacturing defect.
machines that fail structurally during normal usage.
failures caused by unreasonable or abusive use.
parts, cables, or labor costs for repairs.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials) (Performance Level:
Proficient) – Question 03
The Man Who Gave Us Yellowstone
by Cliff Yudell
1
On a brilliant summer afternoon in 1871, a young
artist sat high upon a cliff in the American West,
mesmerized by the grandeur of the wilderness he
saw. In the distance the untamed Yellowstone River
came crashing down a huge waterfall into a basin of
sapphire blue. Below him lay massive canyon walls,
violently etched out of the cream-yellow stone.
2
To paint these wonders, the thin, sturdy man had
endured a four-day ride on the fledgling Northern
Pacific Railroad, a dangerous stagecoach journey and
a painful trek by horse and pack mule. He was
traveling as an artist on a survey team, and the work
he created as a result of this trip would introduce thousands of Americans to the sublime landscape of their own country—and help to establish Yellowstone as our first
national park.
3
While the bearded figure sat gazing at the splendor around him, he wondered
if he could capture on paper all the glories he saw. Alone with his watercolors and
drawing pencils, 34-year-old Thomas Moran began to sketch.
4
The artist who did so much for the American West was born into a family of
weavers in Bolton, England, in 1837. When Moran was seven, his family moved to Philadelphia, where they worked long hours at the loom.
5
A sensitive young man, Moran spent his early adulthood refining his art without
formal education. Day trips outside the city introduced him to the beauty of sloping
hillsides and sparkling riverbeds, sights he translated brush stroke by brush stroke onto
canvases that grew more assured as time went by. He sold enough of these early
works to keep going.
Back to Table of Contents
6
In Philadelphia he met a young woman named Mary Nimmo, who became
his wife and, later, his companion in work. Moran helped Mary develop her talent for
painting and etching while he continued to develop his own artistic style.
7
By 1870 Moran was illustrating articles for Scribner’s Monthly magazine. One article, written by explorer Nathaniel Langford, described a mysterious region in the West
called Yellowstone as “the place where hell bubbled up.” Langford wrote of a threatening underworld marked by foul-smelling sulfur steam. By reworking crude drawings
made by members of Langford’s expedition and using his own imagination, Moran
drew a fantastic world of erupting geysers and jagged pinnacles.
8
At the time, little was known about this part of the West. The area we now call
Yellowstone— encompassing sections of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho—was nearly
inaccessible. Plans to explore the region had been halted by the start of the Civil War
in 1861.
9
With the end of the war came new explorations, spurred in part by a celebration of freedom and patriotism. In 1867 the government began funding a number of
survey teams to visit uncharted territories in the West. The initial teams produced vital
information accompanied by rudimentary sketches done by soldiers. But these reports
to Congress could not convey the visual reality of this stunning region.
10 One team, however, was led by Ferdinand V. Hayden, a former Union Army
surgeon who had tremendous enthusiasm for both scientific discovery and natural
beauty. Hayden possessed one important skill that the other team leaders lacked: he
was adept at political lobbying. Hayden’s goal was not merely to issue technical
reports, but to excite public imagination, to popularize the West and make it accessible.
11 Hayden knew it would take a landscape painter of enormous talent, even genius, to show Congress what he himself had seen. At the suggestion of Northern Pacific
Railroad financier Jay Cooke, who had seen Moran’s sketches in Scribner’s, Hayden
took along the young artist. Cooke and Scribner’s each put up $500 to finance Moran’s journey.
12 With his small carpetbag stuffed full of clothing and art materials, Moran went
into the wilderness. He was so thin he had to put a pillow beneath him on the saddle,
but he still couldn’t ride without pain.
Back to Table of Contents
13 The trip proved worthwhile, however. Finally reaching the foothills of Yellowstone’s Mount Washburn, Moran was dazzled by the deep greens of ancient pines
and the aspens that seemed to steal color from the sun. As he approached the Yellowstone River’s Lower Falls, he was astounded by copper-stained boulders and yellow
sulfur springs—only to see them upstaged by the violent blues of cascading waters.
14 Back in Philadelphia after the expedition, Moran was eager to communicate
the profound experience of Yellowstone. He spent months at his easel, often painting
into the night, the only light coming from flickering gas lamps. “I have always held that
the grandest, most beautiful or wonderful in nature would, in capable hands, make
the grandest, most beautiful or wonderful pictures,” the artist later wrote. “If I fail to
prove this, I fail to prove myself worthy of the name painter.”
15 Thomas Moran proved himself more than worthy. His “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,” a monumental seven-by-12-foot oil painting, is one of the finest landscapes
in 19th-century American art.
16 While Moran worked in his studio, Hayden knocked on Congressional doors. With
expedition photos and Moran’s vivid field sketches in hand, Hayden had an arsenal of
visual ammunition to push forward the park legislation.
17 By March 1, 1872, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill, Yellowstone
had been described in the Congressional debates not as an unfriendly, underworld
place but as “a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
Curious to discover the West they had previously spurned, even feared, thousands of
Americans traveled there to experience its awe-inspiring beauty. Congress echoed
this enthusiasm by purchasing Moran’s “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” for display
in the Capitol.
18 With his reputation launched, Moran literally began using “Yellowstone” as his
middle name. Keen-eyed observers will note a tiny monogram on many of his landscapes, combining his initials, TM, with a Y for the park that became such a part of his
identity.
19 Moran continued to explore the West, producing canvases so precise that even
today geologists can identify rock formations from studying his works. By the time he
died in 1926 at age 89, Moran had created some 1000 oils, more than 2000 magazine
illustrations and over 300 watercolors.
Back to Table of Contents
20 The artist’s greatest legacy, however, was to future generations. The establishment of Yellowstone National Park led to the development of the National Park Service, which now administers more than
350 sites, including national parks, battlefields, and memorials attracting more than 265
million visitors a year.
21 It’s not surprising, then, that Thomas Moran has been called the Father of the
National Parks. What his landscapes proved, said Stephen Tyng Mather, director of
the Park Service in the 1920s, was that an American “did not have to leave his native
shores to look on something more wonderful than the Alps.”
Copyright © 1997 Cliff Yudell. Used by permission of Cliff Yudell, a Miami-based writer and artist.
Which idea shows that the author believes that Yellowstone’s beauty is awe-inspiring?
A
The author expresses how Langford described Yellowstone as a place with a “threatening underworld.”
B
The author explains that, after the Civil War, the government funded survey teams to explore the West.
C
The author describes how eager Moran was to tell others about his “profound experience” at Yellowstone.
D
The author tried to prevent Yellowstone from becoming a national park, fearing that tourists would ruin the natural beauty.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 01
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
In the bibliography (Document A), 15 December 2000: 32 is an abbreviated way of
noting the
A
B
C
D
issue and page number.
delivery date and version number.
number of issues each year.
publisher’s authorization code.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 01
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
In Document C, which of these should help the reader visualize where to enter the required information?
A
B
C
D
a graphic showing a CD
a simulated computer screen
step-by-step instructions
notes in italics
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 02
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
Which of these facts about Collector’s Catalog can be found by reading the page
from the User’s Manual (Document C)?
A
B
C
D
Collector’s Catalog is a new computer program.
Collector’s Catalog can inventory up to 1,000 CDs.
New Generation Software manufactures Collector’s Catalog.
Collector’s Catalog does not require the “comments” field to be completed.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 03
Read these three documents and answer the questions that follow.
Document A
Document B
Fitness Journal Consumer Report:
FitQuest 2000—Everything You Need in a Home Gym!
The editors of Fitness Journal asked me to check out and critique three of the most
popular home gyms. I chose three machines that seemed to target different markets:
the Bodyworks II, the FitQuest 2000, and the Home Training System by Cawells Industries. All three machines are said to fold away and store easily; all three claim a full
body workout can be completed in as little as 30 minutes; and all three stress they can
help the user lose weight and look better.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
FitQuest 2000
Rank: 1
Price: $199 Available: Most large department stores.
The FitQuest 2000 turned out to be a great little home gym. It was not the most expensive, nor did it offer the most options, but it was fast, easy to use, and left me feeling
like I’d had a real workout. The first pleasant surprise was opening the box to find it fully
assembled. The FitQuest easily unpacked and unfolded, and within ten minutes,
I was working out! Using the enclosed wall chart and operating instructions I was able
to perform all 20 of the exercises the machine claims to offer. Note: FitQuest does not
recommend doing all 20 exercises during each workout. The machine is fast. The only
adjustments between exercises are to the incline and the cables, and are simple and
easy to accomplish. Still, when I attempted a “suggested” workout the next day, it
took some hustle to get through it in 30 minutes. However, users could probably still
complete the workout in less than 45 minutes at a reasonable pace. Bottom line: If you
can’t join a gym, this is a good alternative.
Home Training System Rank: 2 Price: $699
Available: Sporting goods stores.
Cawells Industries advertises the Home Training System as “the ultimate home workout
for the serious trainer.” These are not just hollow promises. The first clue that this will be
a “serious” machine is the price tag, a full $500 more than the FitQuest 2000. The Home
Training System does offer almost everything you can think of in a home gym, and its
58 exercises are almost double that offered by the FitQuest or Bodyworks II machines.
The Home Training System provides a genuine workout that nearly rivals what could
be achieved at commercial fitness gyms. However, this is a gym for someone with
plenty of time for training. Changing exercise positions on this machine is cumbersome
and sometimes more of a workout than the exercises themselves. It required almost
two hours to assemble. It is bulky and would only be considered portable by Arnold
Schwarzenegger—maybe. Bottom line: this is a good machine, but if you’ve got this
much time and money, join a gym.
Back to Table of Contents
Document B (continued)
Bodyworks II
Rank: 3
Price: $129
Available: Most department stores.
The Bodyworks II claims to offer a “superb workout in just a half-hour.” Well, not exactly.
The machine, the least expensive of the three, did provide a good workout. Its 35 positions were slightly more than the FitQuest though less than the Home Training System. It
also came unassembled, but was not as difficult to put together as the Home Training
System. Though some of the exercises were a bit awkward, none seemed dangerous.
Changing positions, however, was somewhat difficult and seemed to make a 30-minute workout unlikely unless limited to three or four exercises. Though the machine is not
bulky and can easily fit under a bed, it is heavy, and unfolding it was a challenge. Its
caster wheels are not adequate for pushing it more than a few feet. Bottom line: You
can get a good workout from this machine, but if you can afford it, spend a little more
for the FitQuest 2000.
Document C
FitQuest 2000 5-Year Limited Warranty
If your FitQuest 2000 fails structurally during normal usage, we will repair or replace
it without charge to you. Parts, cables, and labor are included. This warranty is not
transferable and does not cover the failure of FitQuest 2000 machines used commercially or for institutional purposes. The warranty excludes failure caused by
unreasonable or abusive use, improper assembly following user-performed disassembly, or failure to provide reasonable and necessary care and maintenance.
Please consult the User’s Manual for maintenance and care instructions. FitQuest,
Inc. shall not be liable for shipping or packaging charges to or from the factory for
returned items. To obtain service, contact the FitQuest Customer Service Department at the number provided in the User’s Guide. Users can also write with questions to FitQuest, Inc. Customer Service, P.O. Box 1800, Oceanside, CA, 90000.
Back to Table of Contents
FitQuest 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
All FitQuest products come with a 30-day money back guarantee, less all freight
charges. Returns should be made in the original box. Please include a copy of the
original sales receipt with the date of purchase clearly marked. Make sure that all
parts are returned with the machine. Please attach a letter detailing any damage.
It is requested that you also provide an explanation of why you were dissatisfied with
the machine. This information is optional and will be used by FitQuest only to improve
our products.
The point of the large, boldfaced reference to a magazine article in Document A is to
A
B
C
D
persuade the reader of the machine’s popularity.
convince the reader to subscribe to the magazine.
encourage the reader to find out more about fitness.
let the reader know that the machine is expensive.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 04
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
To locate more information about Collector’s Catalog before purchasing the program,
you could read
A
B
C
D
“What’s New in Software?”
“Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.”
Working Teens as Consumers.
Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 05
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
In the bibliography (Document A), when information is given about a book, a colon is
used to separate
A
B
C
D
the name of the book and the publication date.
the title of the book and the name of the publisher.
the name of the author and the title of the book.
the name of the publishing company and city where it is located.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 06
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
Based on information in the bibliography (Document A), which of these could be
consulted for a report on how compact discs were invented?
A
B
C
D
Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand
Music Plus Digest
Software Inside News
The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 07
The Man Who Gave Us Yellowstone
by Cliff Yudell
1
On a brilliant summer afternoon in 1871, a young
artist sat high upon a cliff in the American West,
mesmerized by the grandeur of the wilderness he
saw. In the distance the untamed Yellowstone River
came crashing down a huge waterfall into a basin of
sapphire blue. Below him lay massive canyon walls,
violently etched out of the cream-yellow stone.
2
To paint these wonders, the thin, sturdy man had
endured a four-day ride on the fledgling Northern
Pacific Railroad, a dangerous stagecoach journey and
a painful trek by horse and pack mule. He was
traveling as an artist on a survey team, and the work
he created as a result of this trip would introduce thousands of Americans to the sublime landscape of their own country—and help to establish Yellowstone as our first
national park.
3
While the bearded figure sat gazing at the splendor around him, he wondered
if he could capture on paper all the glories he saw. Alone with his watercolors and
drawing pencils, 34-year-old Thomas Moran began to sketch.
4
The artist who did so much for the American West was born into a family of
weavers in Bolton, England, in 1837. When Moran was seven, his family moved to Philadelphia, where they worked long hours at the loom.
5
A sensitive young man, Moran spent his early adulthood refining his art without
formal education. Day trips outside the city introduced him to the beauty of sloping
hillsides and sparkling riverbeds, sights he translated brush stroke by brush stroke onto
canvases that grew more assured as time went by. He sold enough of these early
works to keep going.
Back to Table of Contents
6
In Philadelphia he met a young woman named Mary Nimmo, who became
his wife and, later, his companion in work. Moran helped Mary develop her talent for
painting and etching while he continued to develop his own artistic style.
7
By 1870 Moran was illustrating articles for Scribner’s Monthly magazine. One article, written by explorer Nathaniel Langford, described a mysterious region in the West
called Yellowstone as “the place where hell bubbled up.” Langford wrote of a threatening underworld marked by foul-smelling sulfur steam. By reworking crude drawings
made by members of Langford’s expedition and using his own imagination, Moran
drew a fantastic world of erupting geysers and jagged pinnacles.
8
At the time, little was known about this part of the West. The area we now call
Yellowstone— encompassing sections of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho—was nearly
inaccessible. Plans to explore the region had been halted by the start of the Civil War
in 1861.
9
With the end of the war came new explorations, spurred in part by a celebration of freedom and patriotism. In 1867 the government began funding a number of
survey teams to visit uncharted territories in the West. The initial teams produced vital
information accompanied by rudimentary sketches done by soldiers. But these reports
to Congress could not convey the visual reality of this stunning region.
10 One team, however, was led by Ferdinand V. Hayden, a former Union Army
surgeon who had tremendous enthusiasm for both scientific discovery and natural
beauty. Hayden possessed one important skill that the other team leaders lacked: he
was adept at political lobbying. Hayden’s goal was not merely to issue technical
reports, but to excite public imagination, to popularize the West and make it accessible.
11 Hayden knew it would take a landscape painter of enormous talent, even genius, to show Congress what he himself had seen. At the suggestion of Northern Pacific
Railroad financier Jay Cooke, who had seen Moran’s sketches in Scribner’s, Hayden
took along the young artist. Cooke and Scribner’s each put up $500 to finance Moran’s journey.
12 With his small carpetbag stuffed full of clothing and art materials, Moran went
into the wilderness. He was so thin he had to put a pillow beneath him on the saddle,
but he still couldn’t ride without pain.
Back to Table of Contents
13 The trip proved worthwhile, however. Finally reaching the foothills of Yellowstone’s Mount Washburn, Moran was dazzled by the deep greens of ancient pines
and the aspens that seemed to steal color from the sun. As he approached the Yellowstone River’s Lower Falls, he was astounded by copper-stained boulders and yellow
sulfur springs—only to see them upstaged by the violent blues of cascading waters.
14 Back in Philadelphia after the expedition, Moran was eager to communicate
the profound experience of Yellowstone. He spent months at his easel, often painting
into the night, the only light coming from flickering gas lamps. “I have always held that
the grandest, most beautiful or wonderful in nature would, in capable hands, make
the grandest, most beautiful or wonderful pictures,” the artist later wrote. “If I fail to
prove this, I fail to prove myself worthy of the name painter.”
15 Thomas Moran proved himself more than worthy. His “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,” a monumental seven-by-12-foot oil painting, is one of the finest landscapes
in 19th-century American art.
16 While Moran worked in his studio, Hayden knocked on Congressional doors. With
expedition photos and Moran’s vivid field sketches in hand, Hayden had an arsenal of
visual ammunition to push forward the park legislation.
17 By March 1, 1872, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill, Yellowstone
had been described in the Congressional debates not as an unfriendly, underworld
place but as “a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
Curious to discover the West they had previously spurned, even feared, thousands of
Americans traveled there to experience its awe-inspiring beauty. Congress echoed
this enthusiasm by purchasing Moran’s “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” for display
in the Capitol.
18 With his reputation launched, Moran literally began using “Yellowstone” as his
middle name. Keen-eyed observers will note a tiny monogram on many of his landscapes, combining his initials, TM, with a Y for the park that became such a part of his
identity.
19 Moran continued to explore the West, producing canvases so precise that even
today geologists can identify rock formations from studying his works. By the time he
died in 1926 at age 89, Moran had created some 1000 oils, more than 2000 magazine
illustrations and over 300 watercolors.
Back to Table of Contents
20 The artist’s greatest legacy, however, was to future generations. The establishment of Yellowstone National Park led to the development of the National Park Service, which now administers more than
350 sites, including national parks, battlefields, and memorials attracting more than 265
million visitors a year.
21 It’s not surprising, then, that Thomas Moran has been called the Father of the
National Parks. What his landscapes proved, said Stephen Tyng Mather, director of
the Park Service in the 1920s, was that an American “did not have to leave his native
shores to look on something more wonderful than the Alps.”
Copyright © 1997 Cliff Yudell. Used by permission of Cliff Yudell, a Miami-based writer and artist.
Which question could be answered by doing fact-based research?
A
What is the most dramatic part of Yellowstone?
B
Which period of Moran’s life most likely had the least influence on his ability to paint?
C
How did the establishment of Yellowstone National Park lead to the development of the National Park Service?
D
Why should an art critic view Moran’s paintings of Yellowstone as magnificent?
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 08
Back to Table of Contents
What sequence of steps would you follow to check the time in Moscow?
A
B
C
D
Press ZONE twice. Press 9.
Press ZONE twice. Press +3.
Press ZONE twice. Press 9 three times.
Press ZONE twice. Press 9. Press +3.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 01
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
According to Document C, a document is saved each time you select
A
B
C
D
FILE.
TITLE.
NEW RECORD.
ALL RECORDS.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 02
Back to Table of Contents
Why are the words TIME, SET, DATE, ZONE, and CAL most likely set in a typeface
different from the rest of the text?
A
B
C
D
to draw attention to complicated technical terms
to indicate words that appear on the calculator’s buttons
to designate words that are defined in the passage
to provide variety and interest to the appearance of the document
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Below Basic) – Question 01
These three documents are about a software program. You will need to refer to them as
you answer the questions that follow.
Music to Your Ears
by Mark Sanders
If you are like most American teenagers, you probably own a music CD. In fact, you
may own dozens of them—even hundreds of them. Young people are buying more
compact discs than ever before! As their libraries have grown, so has the demand for
a way to organize their collections.
New Generation Software Company has the answer. Today, the company announced
the release of Collector’s Catalog, a new user-friendly software program that allows collectors to catalog their music collections. The database has the capability of maintaining an inventory of as many as 1,000 CDs. The program stores the tracking information,
such as record title, artist, category, and release date, that is needed to locate any CD
in seconds.
Harrison Quaile, Vice President of Marketing for New Generation, explained that with
Collector’s Catalog, “an inventory can be progressively enlarged and retrieved with
ease.” If you are a serious music collector, this news should be music to your ears!
Back to Table of Contents
Bibliography
American Marketing Resources. Keeping Pace With Consumer Demand (The Kilmartin Report). Washington: Capitol Hill Press, 1999.
Brown, Jamar. “What’s New in Software?” Software Inside News 1 January 2000, sec. B-4.
“Compact Discs.” The Universal Encyclopedia of Technology. 1998 ed.
Hauser, Melanie. “Compact Disc Packaging Analysis.” Music Plus Digest 15 December 2000: 32.
Larkin, Esther. Not Compact Enough—Solving the Music Storage Question. London: Choice Publications, 1998.
Valez, Hector. Working Teens as Consumers. Los Angeles: Victory Press, 1996.
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Table of Contents
According to Document C, how do you move from one field to the next?
A
B
C
D
Select the NEW RECORD option.
Select the PRINT option.
Press the EXIT key.
Press the TAB key.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Reading Comprehension (Performance Level: Below Basic) – Question 02
Back to Table of Contents
If you live in London, what is the difference in time between your home and Los Angeles?
A
B
C
D
10 hours
8 hours
6 hours
12 hours
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Advanced) –Question 01
I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
5
10 15
20
25 30 Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight
celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for.
I cannot get by
with only
a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
60 65 70 75 80 It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
Back to Table of Contents
Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
Back to Table of Contents
4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone.
I abandoned my sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue
and pink houses, past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I
walked in my own strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not
a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before
me, blocks away. I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted
with a sadness I had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had
seemed vast, dark, and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
The narrator in “Skunk Dreams” describes the odor from the skunk as “powerfully
there.” What does the author mean by this?
A
There was only a faint smell from the skunk, but it lingered for a long time.
B
The odor was so pungent that she could not escape it, and it could not be ignored.
C
The odor disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived with the skunk.
D
The smell was so strong, the narrator believed that it would never dissipate.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 02
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Which word from “Those Winter Sundays” is derived from a Greek word meaning time?
A
B
C
D
labor
weather
thanked
chronic
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 01
Which of the following words is derived from the name of the Greek god of sleep?
A
B
C
D
labyrinthian
titanic
hypnotic
geocentric
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Proficient) –Question 02
5
10 15
20
25 30 I’m in Charge of Celebrations
by Byrd Baylor
Sometimes people ask me,
“Aren’t you lonely
out there
with just
desert
35 around you?”
I guess they mean
the beargrass
and the yuccas
and the cactus
40 and the rocks.
I guess they mean
the deep ravines
and the hawk nests
in the cliffs
45 and the coyote trails
that wind
across the hills.
“Lonely?”
I can’t help
50 laughing
when they ask me
that.
I always look at them . . . surprised.
55 And I say,
“How could I be lonely? I’m the one
in charge of
celebrations.”
Sometimes
they don’t believe me,
60 but it’s true.
I am.
I put
myself
in charge.
65 I choose
my own.
Last year
I gave myself
one hundred and eight 70 celebrations—
besides the ones
that they close school for. I cannot get by
with only
75 a few.
Friend, I’ll tell you
how it works.
I keep a notebook
and I write the date
80 and then I write about
the celebration.
I’m very choosy
over
what goes in
that book.
It has to be something
I plan to remember
the rest of my life.
You can tell
what’s worth
a celebration
because
your heart will
POUND
and you’ll feel
like you’re standing
on top of a mountain
and you’ll
catch your breath
like you were
breathing
some new kind of air.
Otherwise
I count it just
an average day.
(I told you
I was
choosy.)
Reprinted with the permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division from I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Copyright © 1986 Byrd Baylor.
Back to Table of Contents
Skunk Dreams
by Louise Erdrich
1
When I was fourteen, I slept alone on a North Dakota football field under cold stars on an early September night. Fall progresses swiftly in the Red River Valley, and I happened to hit a night when frost formed in the grass. A skunk trailed a
plume of steam across the forty-yard line near moonrise. I tucked the top of my sleeping bag over my head and was just dozing off when the skunk walked onto me with
simple authority.
2
Its ripe odor must have dissipated in the heavy summer grass and ditch weeds,
because it didn’t smell all that bad, or perhaps it was just that I took shallow breaths in
numb surprise. I felt him, her, whatever, pause on the side of my hip and turn around
twice before evidently deciding I was a good place to sleep. At the back of my knees,
on the quilting of my sleeping bag, it trod out a spot for itself and then, with a serene
little groan, curled up and lay perfectly still. That made two of us. I was wildly awake,
trying to forget the sharpness and number of skunk teeth, trying not to think of the high
percentage of skunks with rabies.
3
Inside the bag, I felt as if I might smother. Carefully, making only the slightest of
rustles, I drew the bag away from my face and took a deep breath of the night air,
enriched with skunk, but clear and watery and cold. It wasn’t so bad, and the skunk
didn’t stir at all, so I watched the moon—caught that night in an envelope of silk, a
mist—pass over my sleeping field of teenage guts and glory. The grass harbored a sere
dust both old and fresh. I smelled the heat of spent growth beneath the rank tone of
my bag-mate—the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly
manured fields a mile or two away—along with my sleeping bag’s smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky. The skunk settled even closer and began to breathe rapidly; its
feet jerked a little like a dog’s. I sank against the earth, and fell asleep too.
Back to Table of Contents
4
Of what easily tipped cans, what molten sludge, what dogs in yards on chains,
what leftover macaroni casseroles, what cellar holes,crawl spaces, burrows taken from
meek woodchucks, of what miracles of garbage did my skunk dream? Or did it, since
we can’t be sure, dream the plot of Moby-Dick, how to properly age Parmesan, or
how to restore the brick-walled tumbledown creamery that was its home? We don’t
know about the dreams of any other biota, and even much about our own. If dreams
are an actual dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide
do not apply. In that place, skunks may certainly dream of themselves into the vests of
stockbrokers. Perhaps that night the skunk and I dreamed each other’s thoughts or are
still dreaming them. To paraphrase the problem of the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, I
may be a woman who has dreamed herself a skunk, or a skunk still dreaming that she
is a woman.
5
Skunks don’t mind each other’s vile perfume. Obviously, they find each other
more than tolerable. And even I, who have been in the presence of a direct skunk
hit, wouldn’t classify their weapon as mere smell. It is more on the order of a realityenhancing experience. It’s not so pleasant as standing in a grove of old-growth cedars, or on a lyrical moonshed plain, or watching trout rise to the shadow of your hand
on the placid surface of an Alpine lake. When the skunk lets go, you’re surrounded by
skunk presence: inhabited, owned, involved with something you can only describe as
powerfully there.
6
I woke at dawn, stunned into that sprayed state of being. The dog that had approached me was rolling in the grass, half addled, sprayed too. My skunk was gone.
I abandoned my sleeping bag and started home. Up Eighth Street, past the tiny blue
and pink houses, past my grade school, past all the addresses where I babysat, I
walked in my own strange wind. The streets were wide and empty; I met no one—not
a dog, not a squirrel, not even an early robin. Perhaps they had all scattered before
me, blocks away. I had gone out to sleep on the football field because I was afflicted
with a sadness I had to dramatize. They were nothing to me now. My emotions had
seemed vast, dark, and private. But they were minor, mere wisps, compared to skunk.
“Skunk Dreams” from THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by LOUISE ERDRICH. Copyright © 1995 by Louise Erdrich.
Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Back to Table of Contents
In which sentence does the underlined word have the most negative connotation?
A
B
C
D
Skunks are used to smelling each other’s vile perfume.
Skunks are used to smelling each other’s aromatic perfume.
Skunks are used to smelling each other’s heavenly perfume.
Skunks are used to smelling each other’s odorous perfume.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 03
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Which word from “The Grammar of Silk” is derived from a Latin word meaning “to stay
behind”?
A
B
C
D
dangled
linings
remnants
triumph
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 01
Which of the following words is derived from the mythological name of the Greek
god of fear?
A
B
C
D
oceanic
cosmetic
phobic
psychic
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 02
Which of these words denoting “thinness” has a negative connotation?
A
B
C
D
slender
lean
scrawny
slim
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 03
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence from the passage.
The TIME column shows the number of
hours each city is ahead of or behind
London.
In which sentence does column have the same meaning as it does in the sentence
above?
A
The column of marching soldiers seemed to go on forever.
B
Each corner of the roof was supported by a massive iron column.
C
Most of the students had trouble deciding what to put in the survey’s answer column.
D
A column of water jetted up from the center of the fountain and then crashed back down.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 04
Which of these words connotes the concept of rights?
A
B
C
D
inhabitant
visitor
resident
citizen
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Below Basic) – Question 01
Read the following two selections and think about how they are alike and how they
are different.
5 10 Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
“Those Winter Sundays” Copyright © 1966 by Robert Hayden, from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden
by Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Back to Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 The Grammar of Silk
by Cathy Song
On Saturdays in the morning
my mother sent me to Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school.
It was cool and airy in her basement,
pleasant—a word I choose
to use years later to describe
the long tables where we sat
and cut, pinned, and stitched,
the Singer’s companionable whirr,
the crisp, clever bite of scissors
parting like silver fish a river of calico.
The school was in walking distance
to Kaimuki Dry Goods
where my mother purchased my supplies—
small cards of buttons,
zippers and rickrack packaged like licorice,
lifesaver rolls of thread
in fifty-yard lengths,
spun from spools, tough as tackle.
Seamstresses waited at the counters
like librarians to be consulted.
Pens and scissors dangled like awkward pendants
across flat chests,
a scarf of measuring tape flung across a shoulder,
timeas a pincushion bristled at the wrist.
They deciphered a dress’s blueprints
with an architect’s keen eye.
This evidently was a sanctuary,
a place where women confined with children
conferred, consulted the oracle,
the stone tablets of the latest pattern books.
Here mothers and daughters paused in symmetry,
offered the proper reverence—
hushed murmurings for the shauntung silk
which required a certain sigh,
as if it were a piece from the Ming Dynasty.
Back to Table of Contents
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 My mother knew there would be no shortcuts
and headed for the remnants,
the leftover bundles with yardage
enough for a heart-shaped pillow,
a child’s dirndl, a blouse without darts.
Along the aisles
my fingertips touched the titles—
satin, tulle, velvet,
peach, lavender, pistachio,
sherbet-colored linings—
and settled for the plain brown-and-white composition
of polka dots on kettle cloth
my mother held up in triumph.
She was determined that I should sew
as if she knew what she herself was missing,
a moment when she could have come up for air—
the children asleep,
the dishes drying on the rack—
and turned on the lamp
and pulled back the curtain of sleep.
To inhabit the night,
the night as a black cloth, white paper,
a sheet of music in which she might find herself singing.
On Saturdays at Mrs. Umemoto’s sewing school,
when I took my place beside the other girls,
bent my head and went to work,
my foot keeping time on the pedal,
it was to learn the charitable oblivion
of hand and mind as one—
a refuge such music affords the maker—
the pleasure of notes in perfectly measured time.
“The Grammar of Silk” is from School Figures, by Cathy Song, © 1994. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Back to Table of Contents
Read these lines from “Those Winter Sundays.”
Speaking indifferently to him, / who had
driven out the cold
In which sentence does driven have the same meaning as it does in the lines above?
A
Shanda had driven for three hours to get to the reunion.
B
By noon the sun had driven away the fog.
C
Once he had driven in the nail, Karl hung the picture.
D
The coachman had driven the horses all night.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
(Performance Level: Below Basic) – Question 02
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence from the passage.
Depress and hold the
key until the desired
hour flashes.
In which sentence does depress have the same meaning as it does in the sentence
above?
A
B
C
D
The slow, mournful music was beginning to depress Maddie.
The flood of CD players on the market served to depress their price.
Ian had to depress the lever several times to get the jack to the proper height.
According to one economist, another drop in employment could depress the economy.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 01
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Keeping his audience in mind, what tone did Kevin strive for in his report?
A
B
C
D
slangy
technical
informational
emotional
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 02
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
Sidney Coe Howard: The Rewards of Perseverance
(1) Sidney Coe Howard, a native of Oakland, California, enjoyed a career as
a writer, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. (2) Despite these
later achievements, Howard initially found that recognition of his work did not
come easily.
(3) Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, was submitted to sixteen
producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage. (4) Not only was the
play successful, it also won a Pulitzer Prize for excellence and was later made
into a movie. (5) If Howard had not believed in himself and his play—if he had
not persevered until failure became success—he might of given up and pursued
a different career. (6) Howard >instead became one of the most respected playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.
(7) When he was a teenager, Howard had tuberculosis, a very serious illness
that led to a long hospitalization. (8) It is likely that as an adult Howard persisted
in submitting his play, refusing to give up in spite of rejection, because he already
knew how to face and overcome adversity. (9) In addition, Howard made use of the
time of illness and recovery by practicing his writing. (10) He went to the University
of California and then to Harvard after he got well, where he earned a master’s degree.
(11) Although Howard was primarily a playwright, he was also a screenwriter.
(12) He wrote the screenplay for the film classic Gone With the Wind, for which he
won an Academy Award.
Back to Table of Contents
What is the best way to rewrite sentence 3 using the active voice?
A
They Knew What They Wanted, Howard’s first play, was rejected by sixteen producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage.
B
Howard’s first play was called They Knew What They Wanted, it was rejected by sixteen producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage.
C
Sixteen producers rejected Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, before one finally agreed to put it on the stage.
D
Before one finally agreed to put it on the stage, They Knew What They Wanted was rejected by sixteen producers, as Howard’s first play.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 03
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman,
were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked in a law
office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon reading
the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was well on his
way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary
scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Which sentence would best conclude the report?
A
Walt Whitman’s poetry, then, was a means by which he could depict his life and deal with difficult experiences.
B
He believed that music is the poet’s greatest source of wealth and inspiration.
C
As he once predicted, future generations of readers continue to embrace and celebrate his work.
D
Whitman believed that he owed his career as a poet to his friend and mentor,
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Advanced) – Question 04
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman,
were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked in a law
office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon reading
the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was well on his
way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary
scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Which source listed in the Works Cited section of the report is a periodical?
A
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing,
1998.
B
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
C
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
D
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12 (2000): 27–37.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 01
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Communicating with a Giant
(1) Elephants are known as one of the most respected and magnificent landanimals in the world. (2) Living peacefully with other creatures is easy for elephants because, despite their powerful strength, they do not abuse their power, and they carefully avoid harming other creatures. (3) Elephants live together easily. (4) Because they
communicate well with each other. (5) Just like people, elephants use body language
and sound to communicate easily
with one another.
(6) The positions of an elephant’s trunk, ears, and head communicate. (7) When
an elephant’s ears are outstreched and the head is high, it is showing signs of a threat,
which indicates to smaller elephants that they should move away. (8) They recognize
one another, by sight, smell, and voice. (9) Greetings to one another are communicated between two elephants by entwining their trunks and touching cheeks.
(10) A variety of sounds make up their language, including the rumbling sound
produced in the larynx and the high-pitched trumpet-like sound produced with a
raised trunk. (11) Elephants are animals that love to chatter when they are around
each other! (12) A purring vibration can indicate pleasure when two meet. (13) On the
other hand, their throats let out a rumbling sound when they are in pain. (14) Elephants
are constantly in contact with one another through infrasound, even over long distances. (15) Infrasounds are sounds we can’t hear that animals make which causes a
vibration in the air. (16) Humans are unable to hear the sounds because the frequencies are too low. (17) If strong enough, the frequencies can be felt physically.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following would improve the structure of sentence 15?
A
Infrasounds which animals make are sounds which causes a vibration in the air which is an inaudible sound.
B
Infrasounds, inaudible to humans, are vibrations in the air caused by animals.
C
Infrasounds are sounds we can’t hear that animals make that cause a vibration in the air.
D
Infrasounds are sounds humans can’t hear that animals make that make a vi
bration in the air.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 02
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
The next paragraph of Kevin’s draft will probably be about
A
the first buildings designed by Morgan.
B
how Morgan’s family supported her dream.
C
female architects who got their start under Morgan.
D
the architectural style Morgan favored later in life.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 03
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Kevin wants to add the following sentence to his report.
Even as a child, Morgan, a San Francisco native, had a strong interest in buildings.
Where should Kevin add this sentence?
A
at the end of paragraph 1
B
at the beginning of paragraph 2
C
at the end of paragraph 2
D
in the middle of paragraph 3
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 04
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Which of these does Kevin use in paragraph 3 to develop the idea that Morgan had to
overcome many challenges?
A
B
C
D
a diagram
a scenario
a hypothesis
an aside
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 05
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Back to Table of Contents
Kevin wants to add the following sentence to his report. Which version of the sentence
is the most descriptive and precise?
A
Morgan liked the elegant curving lines of classical architecture better than the sharp angles of modern architecture.
B
The particular lines of classical architecture, rather than the very different look of modern architecture, were Morgan’s preference.
C
For some reason, Morgan liked the classical architecture better than modern architecture.
D
The lines of classical architecture Morgan found more attractive than the lines of
modern architecture.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 06
Kevin’s teacher asked her students to write about someone who overcame obstacles
and became a success. Below is Kevin’s rough draft, which may contain errors.
Julia Morgan, Distinguished Architect
1
Julia Morgan, California’s first woman architect and the designer of Hearst Castle,
was a true pioneer. During her long, distinguished career, she designed many beautiful
homes, schools, hospitals, and community centers. Though Morgan faced many challenges on her way to becoming an architect, she overcame them all.
2
Morgan hoped to study architecture in college, but the University of California at
Berkeley, which she began attending at the age of 18, did not have an architecture
school. Morgan majored in civil engineering instead, but she held on to her dream of
designing buildings. After she graduated, friends urged her to apply to the L’Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, a famous architecture school in Paris.
3
The 22-year-old Morgan sailed for Paris, full of hope and excitement. This must
have made it all the more crushing when school authorities told Morgan that women
were not allowed to take the entrance examinations. Morgan refused to give up, however. She began to study French to prepare for the exam. In 1897, the school finally
decided to let women take the entrance exams, and Morgan took the exam for the
first time. She did well but did not place in the top thirty, the school’s requirement for
admittance. After taking the test twice more, Morgan finally gained admittance to the
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Which of these is Kevin’s thesis?
A
Julia Morgan designed Hearst Castle.
B
Julia Morgan is a pioneer because of the nature of her accomplishments.
C
Julia Morgan became interested in buildings when she was a child.
D
Julia Morgan’s friends were behind her success.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 07
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1 Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2 Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3 The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4 Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following is the best way to present the conflicting facts mentioned in the
first sentence of paragraph 2?
A
Death Valley National Park is sometimes 3,367,628 acres and sometimes
3,396,192 acres.
B
Sources disagree on the exact size of Death Valley National Park, but it is huge.
C
Sources disagree on the exact size of Death Valley National Park but agree that it is more than 3.3 million acres.
D
According to sources which disagree, Death Valley is between 3,367,628 and
3,396,192 acres big.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 08
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1 Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2 Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3 The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4 Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
Which word in paragraph 3 should Sylvia define to help the reader better understand
the flow of ideas?
A
B
C
D
reptiles
amphibians
nocturnal
species
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 09
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1 Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2 Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3 The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4 Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
What is the correct way to list a book about Death Valley by Maxine Garcia?
A
B
C
D
Maxine Garcia, New York: The Famous Valley. Hartford Books, 1998.
Garcia, Maxine. The Famous Valley. New York: Hartford Books, 1998.
The Famous Valley by Maxine Garcia. New York: Hartford Books, 1998.
Garcia, Maxine. New York: Hartford Books. The Famous Valley, 1998.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 10
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
The Excitement of Murals
(1) The name Los Tres Grandes, or “The Big Three,” refers to three artists who started the first major modern art movement that began outside of Europe. (2) When people think of art, they frequently think of European countries like Italy, Spain, and France.
(3) They think of Michelangelo, Monet, and Picasso. (4) Mexico, however, should also
be mentioned in the same breath, thanks to the following artists Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
(5) In the early part of the twentieth century, these three artists began a new art
form called Mexican Muralism. (6) Rather than create paintings that would be housed
in homes or museums and be seen by only a small number of people, the muralists
used prominent public buildings as their canvases. (7) Their murals contained images
of important social issues of their time and were painted in mostly neutral colors.
(8) In the 1920s and 1930s, these artists traviled to the United States and painted
murals in major cities like Los Angeles and New York. (9) In the 1960s and 1970s,
Mexican Muralism had a rebirth in the southwestern part of the United States. (10) This
happening was called the Chicano Mural Movement. (11) The Chicano Mural Movement again used public buildings on which to create images. (12) Many of these works
of art captured and expressed a unique culture and heritage. (13) A large number of
these striking murals can still be seen in California, Texas, and Arizona.
What would be the best source for more information about the Chicano Mural
Movement?
A
B
C
D
a magazine article called “Historic Art in New York City”
an essay about the current trends in mural art
a book titled The History of Latino Art
a journal article entitled “Murals of the Big Three”
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 11
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman, were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked
in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon
reading the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was
well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Read this sentence from paragraph 4 of the report.
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon
in the sense that he wrote poems in a form
called thought rhythm, or parallelism, in
which his goal was to mimic the movement
of the sea and the transitory nature of
human emotion.
Which is the best way to rewrite the underlined part of the sentence to include
more sensory details?
A
B
C
D
the ebb and flow of the sea
the big waves of the sea
the changes in size of the sea
the sound of the sea
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Proficient) – Question 12
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman, were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked
in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon
reading the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was
well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Which Works Cited entry is most likely the source for the information in paragraph 2
about Whitman’s teaching career?
A
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing,
1998.
B
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
C
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
D
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12 (2000): 27–37.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 01
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1
Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2
Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3
The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4
Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence.
In spite of the name of the park and
its hard climatic conditions, Death Valley
is alive!
Which word would best replace the underlined word to make the meaning more precise?
A
B
C
D
severe
demanding
ruthless
serious
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 02
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1
Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2
Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3
The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4
Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
What information should Sylvia add to paragraph 1 to support the information
already provided?
A
B
C
D
lists of other hot and dry areas in the country
a definition of rainshadow effect
a definition of Fahrenheit
statistics on the amount of rainfall in other areas
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 03
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1
Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2
Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3
The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4
Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
Which sentence in paragraph 1 is not consistent with the overall tone of the report?
A
Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North America and one of the hottest places known in the world.
B
That is way too amazingly hot for me!
C
Parts of Death Valley receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year.
D
This extremely low rainfall is caused by the rainshadow effect.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 04
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
Sidney Coe Howard: The Rewards of Perseverance
(1) Sidney Coe Howard, a native of Oakland, California, enjoyed a career as
a writer, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. (2) Despite these
later achievements, Howard initially found that recognition of his work did not
come easily.
(3) Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, was submitted to sixteen
producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage. (4) Not only was the
play successful, it also won a Pulitzer Prize for excellence and was later made
into a movie. (5) If Howard had not believed in himself and his play—if he had
not persevered until failure became success—he might of given up and pursued
a different career. (6) Howard >instead became one of the most respected playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.
(7) When he was a teenager, Howard had tuberculosis, a very serious illness
that led to a long hospitalization. (8) It is likely that as an adult Howard persisted
in submitting his play, refusing to give up in spite of rejection, because he already
knew how to face and overcome adversity. (9) In addition, Howard made use of the
time of illness and recovery by practicing his writing. (10) He went to the University
of California and then to Harvard after he got well, where he earned a master’s degree.
(11) Although Howard was primarily a playwright, he was also a screenwriter.
(12) He wrote the screenplay for the film classic Gone With the Wind, for which he
won an Academy Award.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of these would be the best modifier to add before writer in sentence 1?
A
B
C
D
desired
favored
marketable
successful
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 05
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
Sidney Coe Howard: The Rewards of Perseverance
(1) Sidney Coe Howard, a native of Oakland, California, enjoyed a career as
a writer, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. (2) Despite these
later achievements, Howard initially found that recognition of his work did not
come easily.
(3) Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, was submitted to sixteen
producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage. (4) Not only was the
play successful, it also won a Pulitzer Prize for excellence and was later made
into a movie. (5) If Howard had not believed in himself and his play—if he had
not persevered until failure became success—he might of given up and pursued
a different career. (6) Howard >instead became one of the most respected playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.
(7) When he was a teenager, Howard had tuberculosis, a very serious illness
that led to a long hospitalization. (8) It is likely that as an adult Howard persisted
in submitting his play, refusing to give up in spite of rejection, because he already
knew how to face and overcome adversity. (9) In addition, Howard made use of the
time of illness and recovery by practicing his writing. (10) He went to the University
of California and then to Harvard after he got well, where he earned a master’s degree.
(11) Although Howard was primarily a playwright, he was also a screenwriter.
(12) He wrote the screenplay for the film classic Gone With the Wind, for which he
won an Academy Award.
Back to Table of Contents
Which sentence could best be inserted between sentences 7 and 8 to maintain
coherence?
A
B
C
D
It’s difficult for most teenagers to be confined to bed.
This event affected his life in at least two important ways.
I don’t know much about this disease, but it was common in those days.
The circumstances surrounding his illness are not important.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 06
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
The Beginnings of the Globe
(1) Everyone knows that the Globe Theater is a cool place. (2) In 1996, it was
voted the “best attraction in Europe”; however, this version of the Globe, completed
in the mid-1990s with funds from the Shakespeare Globe Playhouse Trust, is not
the original Globe built in the 1500s.
(3) During the 16th century, plays were popular entertainment among all kinds of
people, from the wealthy nobles to the working class. (4) Queen Elizabeth I of England
had a great love for the arts—music, poetry, dance, and plays. (5) Actors performed
in inns throughout the countryside and in London. (6) James Burbage, an actor and
painter, built the first public playhouse in England called The Theater because it was
the first ever built in London. (7) Now the audience could come to the actors rather
than the other way around, and The Theater was a huge success.
(8) When Burbage died, his sons, Cuthbert and Richard, inherited The Theater.
(9) The land, however, on which the playhouse was built was not owned by Burbage.
(10) A man named Giles Allen owned the land and did not want to renew the lease.
(11) The actors decided they would build their own theater. (12) They rented land
near another theater, The Rose, and used timber from The Theater to build the first
Globe Theater. (13) It was here that Shakespeare’s famous plays were performed.
(14) Success was instantaneous. (15) This theater was a favorite of audiences and
actors alike. (16) The actors’ love for The Globe was so strong that when it burned
down in 1613, they pooled their own money to rebuild it, making it even better than
before with elaborate decoration and detail adorning the stage. (17) Even though
this version of the Globe Theater did not survive through the century, its legacy
lives on.
Back to Table of Contents
Which sentence least fits the purpose of the passage?
A
B
C
D
sentence 3
sentence 4
sentence 5
sentence 6
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 07
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
The Beginnings of the Globe
(1) Everyone knows that the Globe Theater is a cool place. (2) In 1996, it was
voted the “best attraction in Europe”; however, this version of the Globe, completed
in the mid-1990s with funds from the Shakespeare Globe Playhouse Trust, is not
the original Globe built in the 1500s.
(3) During the 16th century, plays were popular entertainment among all kinds of
people, from the wealthy nobles to the working class. (4) Queen Elizabeth I of England
had a great love for the arts—music, poetry, dance, and plays. (5) Actors performed
in inns throughout the countryside and in London. (6) James Burbage, an actor and
painter, built the first public playhouse in England called The Theater because it was
the first ever built in London. (7) Now the audience could come to the actors rather
than the other way around, and The Theater was a huge success.
(8) When Burbage died, his sons, Cuthbert and Richard, inherited The Theater.
(9) The land, however, on which the playhouse was built was not owned by Burbage.
(10) A man named Giles Allen owned the land and did not want to renew the lease.
(11) The actors decided they would build their own theater. (12) They rented land
near another theater, The Rose, and used timber from The Theater to build the first
Globe Theater. (13) It was here that Shakespeare’s famous plays were performed.
(14) Success was instantaneous. (15) This theater was a favorite of audiences and
actors alike. (16) The actors’ love for The Globe was so strong that when it burned
down in 1613, they pooled their own money to rebuild it, making it even better than
before with elaborate decoration and detail adorning the stage. (17) Even though
this version of the Globe Theater did not survive through the century, its legacy
lives on.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of these is the best way to revise sentence 1 to match the tone of the passage?
A
B
C
D
When one enters the Globe Theater, one is in the greatest theater.
I think that the Globe Theater is one of the most popular theaters ever.
The Globe Theater is one of the most well-known theaters in the world.
Leave as is.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 08
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
The Excitement of Murals
(1) The name Los Tres Grandes, or “The Big Three,” refers to three artists who started the first major modern art movement that began outside of Europe. (2) When people think of art, they frequently think of European countries like Italy, Spain, and France.
(3) They think of Michelangelo, Monet, and Picasso. (4) Mexico, however, should also
be mentioned in the same breath, thanks to the following artists Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
(5) In the early part of the twentieth century, these three artists began a new art
form called Mexican Muralism. (6) Rather than create paintings that would be housed
in homes or museums and be seen by only a small number of people, the muralists
used prominent public buildings as their canvases. (7) Their murals contained images
of important social issues of their time and were painted in mostly neutral colors.
(8) In the 1920s and 1930s, these artists traviled to the United States and painted
murals in major cities like Los Angeles and New York. (9) In the 1960s and 1970s,
Mexican Muralism had a rebirth in the southwestern part of the United States. (10) This
happening was called the Chicano Mural Movement. (11) The Chicano Mural Movement again used public buildings on which to create images. (12) Many of these works
of art captured and expressed a unique culture and heritage. (13) A large number of
these striking murals can still be seen in California, Texas, and Arizona.
Read this sentence.
This happening was called the Chicano Mural Movement.
Which words would best replace happening in the sentence to be consistent with the
tone of the essay?
A
B
C
D
cool event
artistic development
amazing stuff
super series of actions
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Writing Strategies (Performance Level: Basic) – Question 09
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman, were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked
in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon
reading the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was
well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Which research question most likely contributed to the development of paragraph 1?
A
How did Whitman spend his childhood?
B
What were Whitman’s opinions about America?
C
What styles did Whitman incorporate into his poetry?
D
How did the public react to Whitman’s first publication?
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Advanced)
– Question 01
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Communicating with a Giant
(1) Elephants are known as one of the most respected and magnificent landanimals in the world. (2) Living peacefully with other creatures is easy for elephants because, despite their powerful strength, they do not abuse their power, and they carefully avoid harming other creatures. (3) Elephants live together easily. (4) Because they
communicate well with each other. (5) Just like people, elephants use body language
and sound to communicate easily
with one another.
(6) The positions of an elephant’s trunk, ears, and head communicate. (7) When
an elephant’s ears are outstreched and the head is high, it is showing signs of a threat,
which indicates to smaller elephants that they should move away. (8) They recognize
one another, by sight, smell, and voice. (9) Greetings to one another are communicated between two elephants by entwining their trunks and touching cheeks.
(10) A variety of sounds make up their language, including the rumbling sound
produced in the larynx and the high-pitched trumpet-like sound produced with a
raised trunk. (11) Elephants are animals that love to chatter when they are around
each other! (12) A purring vibration can indicate pleasure when two meet. (13) On the
other hand, their throats let out a rumbling sound when they are in pain. (14) Elephants
are constantly in contact with one another through infrasound, even over long distances. (15) Infrasounds are sounds we can’t hear that animals make which causes a
vibration in the air. (16) Humans are unable to hear the sounds because the frequencies are too low. (17) If strong enough, the frequencies can be felt physically.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following words from the report is not spelled correctly?
A
B
C
D
magnificent
outstreched
entwining
physically
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Advanced)
– Question 02
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
The Beginnings of the Globe
(1) Everyone knows that the Globe Theater is a cool place. (2) In 1996, it was
voted the “best attraction in Europe”; however, this version of the Globe, completed
in the mid-1990s with funds from the Shakespeare Globe Playhouse Trust, is not
the original Globe built in the 1500s.
(3) During the 16th century, plays were popular entertainment among all kinds of
people, from the wealthy nobles to the working class. (4) Queen Elizabeth I of England
had a great love for the arts—music, poetry, dance, and plays. (5) Actors performed
in inns throughout the countryside and in London. (6) James Burbage, an actor and
painter, built the first public playhouse in England called The Theater because it was
the first ever built in London. (7) Now the audience could come to the actors rather
than the other way around, and The Theater was a huge success.
(8) When Burbage died, his sons, Cuthbert and Richard, inherited The Theater.
(9) The land, however, on which the playhouse was built was not owned by Burbage.
(10) A man named Giles Allen owned the land and did not want to renew the lease.
(11) The actors decided they would build their own theater. (12) They rented land
near another theater, The Rose, and used timber from The Theater to build the first
Globe Theater. (13) It was here that Shakespeare’s famous plays were performed.
(14) Success was instantaneous. (15) This theater was a favorite of audiences and
actors alike. (16) The actors’ love for The Globe was so strong that when it burned
down in 1613, they pooled their own money to rebuild it, making it even better than
before with elaborate decoration and detail adorning the stage. (17) Even though
this version of the Globe Theater did not survive through the century, its legacy
lives on.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of these is the best way to revise sentence 9?
A
B
C
D
The land, however, was not owned by Burbage only the playhouse.
The playhouse land, however, was not owned by Burbage.
Burbage, owned only the playhouse, however, not the land.
Burbage, however, owned not the land but he did own the playhouse.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Advanced)
– Question 03
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
The Beginnings of the Globe
(1) Everyone knows that the Globe Theater is a cool place. (2) In 1996, it was
voted the “best attraction in Europe”; however, this version of the Globe, completed
in the mid-1990s with funds from the Shakespeare Globe Playhouse Trust, is not
the original Globe built in the 1500s.
(3) During the 16th century, plays were popular entertainment among all kinds of
people, from the wealthy nobles to the working class. (4) Queen Elizabeth I of England
had a great love for the arts—music, poetry, dance, and plays. (5) Actors performed
in inns throughout the countryside and in London. (6) James Burbage, an actor and
painter, built the first public playhouse in England called The Theater because it was
the first ever built in London. (7) Now the audience could come to the actors rather
than the other way around, and The Theater was a huge success.
(8) When Burbage died, his sons, Cuthbert and Richard, inherited The Theater.
(9) The land, however, on which the playhouse was built was not owned by Burbage.
(10) A man named Giles Allen owned the land and did not want to renew the lease.
(11) The actors decided they would build their own theater. (12) They rented land
near another theater, The Rose, and used timber from The Theater to build the first
Globe Theater. (13) It was here that Shakespeare’s famous plays were performed.
(14) Success was instantaneous. (15) This theater was a favorite of audiences and
actors alike. (16) The actors’ love for The Globe was so strong that when it burned
down in 1613, they pooled their own money to rebuild it, making it even better than
before with elaborate decoration and detail adorning the stage. (17) Even though
this version of the Globe Theater did not survive through the century, its legacy
lives on.
Back to Table of Contents
What is the correct way to combine sentences 14 and 15?
A
Success was instantaneous the theater was a favorite of audiences and actors alike.
B
Success was instantaneous, and the theater was a favorite of audiences and actors alike.
C
The theater was a favorite of audiences and actors alike because success was
instantaneous.
D
The theater was a favorite of audiences
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Proficient)
– Question 01
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
The Excitement of Murals
(1) The name Los Tres Grandes, or “The Big Three,” refers to three artists who started the first major modern art movement that began outside of Europe. (2) When people think of art, they frequently think of European countries like Italy, Spain, and France.
(3) They think of Michelangelo, Monet, and Picasso. (4) Mexico, however, should also
be mentioned in the same breath, thanks to the following artists Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
(5) In the early part of the twentieth century, these three artists began a new art
form called Mexican Muralism. (6) Rather than create paintings that would be housed
in homes or museums and be seen by only a small number of people, the muralists
used prominent public buildings as their canvases. (7) Their murals contained images
of important social issues of their time and were painted in mostly neutral colors.
(8) In the 1920s and 1930s, these artists traviled to the United States and painted
murals in major cities like Los Angeles and New York. (9) In the 1960s and 1970s,
Mexican Muralism had a rebirth in the southwestern part of the United States. (10) This
happening was called the Chicano Mural Movement. (11) The Chicano Mural Movement again used public buildings on which to create images. (12) Many of these works
of art captured and expressed a unique culture and heritage. (13) A large number of
these striking murals can still be seen in California, Texas, and Arizona.
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence.
Mexico, however, should also be mentioned
in the same breath, thanks to the following
artists Diego Rivera, José Clemente
Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
What is the correct punctuation of the underlined part of the sentence?
A
artists: Diego Rivera
B
artists; Diego Rivera
C
artists—Diego Rivera
D
artists, Diego Rivera
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 01
Read this sentence.
In places where the water has evaporated,
limestone has formed again creating
unusual and exotic shapes.
What is the correct way to write the underlined words?
A
B
C
D
formed again; creating
formed again: creating
formed again, creating
Leave as is.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Basic) –
Question 02
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Communicating with a Giant
(1) Elephants are known as one of the most respected and magnificent landanimals in the world. (2) Living peacefully with other creatures is easy for elephants because, despite their powerful strength, they do not abuse their power, and they carefully avoid harming other creatures. (3) Elephants live together easily. (4) Because they
communicate well with each other. (5) Just like people, elephants use body language
and sound to communicate easily
with one another.
(6) The positions of an elephant’s trunk, ears, and head communicate. (7) When
an elephant’s ears are outstreched and the head is high, it is showing signs of a threat,
which indicates to smaller elephants that they should move away. (8) They recognize
one another, by sight, smell, and voice. (9) Greetings to one another are communicated between two elephants by entwining their trunks and touching cheeks.
(10) A variety of sounds make up their language, including the rumbling sound
produced in the larynx and the high-pitched trumpet-like sound produced with a
raised trunk. (11) Elephants are animals that love to chatter when they are around
each other! (12) A purring vibration can indicate pleasure when two meet. (13) On the
other hand, their throats let out a rumbling sound when they are in pain. (14) Elephants
are constantly in contact with one another through infrasound, even over long distances. (15) Infrasounds are sounds we can’t hear that animals make which causes a
vibration in the air. (16) Humans are unable to hear the sounds because the frequencies are too low. (17) If strong enough, the frequencies can be felt physically.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following from the first paragraph is an incomplete sentence?
A
Elephants are known as one of the most respected and magnificent land-animals in the world.
B
Living peacefully with other creatures is easy for elephants because, despite their powerful strength, they do not abuse their power, and they carefully avoid harming other creatures.
C
Elephants live together easily.
D
Because they communicate well with each other.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Basic) –
Question 03
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Communicating with a Giant
(1) Elephants are known as one of the most respected and magnificent landanimals in the world. (2) Living peacefully with other creatures is easy for elephants because, despite their powerful strength, they do not abuse their power, and they carefully avoid harming other creatures. (3) Elephants live together easily. (4) Because they
communicate well with each other. (5) Just like people, elephants use body language
and sound to communicate easily
with one another.
(6) The positions of an elephant’s trunk, ears, and head communicate. (7) When
an elephant’s ears are outstreched and the head is high, it is showing signs of a threat,
which indicates to smaller elephants that they should move away. (8) They recognize
one another, by sight, smell, and voice. (9) Greetings to one another are communicated between two elephants by entwining their trunks and touching cheeks.
(10) A variety of sounds make up their language, including the rumbling sound
produced in the larynx and the high-pitched trumpet-like sound produced with a
raised trunk. (11) Elephants are animals that love to chatter when they are around
each other! (12) A purring vibration can indicate pleasure when two meet. (13) On the
other hand, their throats let out a rumbling sound when they are in pain. (14) Elephants
are constantly in contact with one another through infrasound, even over long distances. (15) Infrasounds are sounds we can’t hear that animals make which causes a
vibration in the air. (16) Humans are unable to hear the sounds because the frequencies are too low. (17) If strong enough, the frequencies can be felt physically.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following is the correct way to punctuate sentence 8?
A
B
C
D
They recognize one another by sight smell, and voice.
They recognize one another by sight, smell, and, voice.
They recognize one another by, sight, smell, and voice.
They recognize one another by sight, smell, and voice.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 04
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Sylvia Hernandez
Mrs. Woods
Geography 101
January 10, 2003
Life in Death Valley
1
Death Valley, in southeastern California, is the hottest, driest place in North
America and one of the hottest places known in the world. The highest temperature
ever recorded in the valley was 134º Fahrenheit, and the temperature routinely
reaches 115º in July. That is way too amazingly hot for me! Parts of Death Valley
receive fewer than two inches of rain in an entire year. This extremely low rainfall
is caused by the rainshadow effect.
2
Death Valley National Park is either 3,367,628 acres or 3,396,192 acres,
depending on which source you believe. The park includes the valley itself and
the surrounding mountains. In spite of the name of the park and its hard climatic
conditions, Death Valley is alive! More than 970 types of plants grow there, including
not only cactus, but also grasses, shrubs, and even trees like juniper, pine, and
mesquite. Most of the trees grow in the mountains, where the air is cooler and
there is more water.
3
The park is alive with birds, reptiles, and amphibians, too. Most are nocturnal.
There are scores of bird species, as well as many reptiles and a few amphibians.
Tortoises, lizards, and snakes—including rattlesnakes—are among the reptile
population. Amphibians include a few kinds of frogs and toads and one species
of salamander.
4
Small mammals, including mice, rats, squirrels, and bats, also live in the park.
So do larger ones, like foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, mountain lions, deer, and
bighorn sheep. The burro and the horse, while not native species, also survive and
thrive in Death Valley. There is an even more surprising fact: there are fish in Death
Valley! They live in the park’s springs, streams, and ponds.
Back to Table of Contents
Which of the following should not appear on the title page of Sylvia’s report when she
turns it in?
A
B
C
D
the title of the report
the writer’s name
the Works Cited
the date of submission
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 05
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
Sidney Coe Howard: The Rewards of Perseverance
(1) Sidney Coe Howard, a native of Oakland, California, enjoyed a career as
a writer, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. (2) Despite these
later achievements, Howard initially found that recognition of his work did not
come easily.
(3) Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, was submitted to sixteen
producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage. (4) Not only was the
play successful, it also won a Pulitzer Prize for excellence and was later made
into a movie. (5) If Howard had not believed in himself and his play—if he had
not persevered until failure became success—he might of given up and pursued
a different career. (6) Howard >instead became one of the most respected playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.
(7) When he was a teenager, Howard had tuberculosis, a very serious illness
that led to a long hospitalization. (8) It is likely that as an adult Howard persisted
in submitting his play, refusing to give up in spite of rejection, because he already
knew how to face and overcome adversity. (9) In addition, Howard made use of the
time of illness and recovery by practicing his writing. (10) He went to the University
of California and then to Harvard after he got well, where he earned a master’s degree.
(11) Although Howard was primarily a playwright, he was also a screenwriter.
(12) He wrote the screenplay for the film classic Gone With the Wind, for which he
won an Academy Award.
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence.
If Howard had not believed in himself and
his play—if he had not persevered until
failure became success—he might of
given up and pursued a different career.
What is the correct way to revise the underlined words in this sentence?
A
he might of give up and pursue a different career.
B
he might of given up, pursued, a different career.
C
he might have given up and pursued a different career.
D
he might give up and pursue a different career.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 06
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
Sidney Coe Howard: The Rewards of Perseverance
(1) Sidney Coe Howard, a native of Oakland, California, enjoyed a career as
a writer, winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award. (2) Despite these
later achievements, Howard initially found that recognition of his work did not
come easily.
(3) Howard’s first play, They Knew What They Wanted, was submitted to sixteen
producers before one finally agreed to put it on the stage. (4) Not only was the
play successful, it also won a Pulitzer Prize for excellence and was later made
into a movie. (5) If Howard had not believed in himself and his play—if he had
not persevered until failure became success—he might of given up and pursued
a different career. (6) Howard >instead became one of the most respected playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.
(7) When he was a teenager, Howard had tuberculosis, a very serious illness
that led to a long hospitalization. (8) It is likely that as an adult Howard persisted
in submitting his play, refusing to give up in spite of rejection, because he already
knew how to face and overcome adversity. (9) In addition, Howard made use of the
time of illness and recovery by practicing his writing. (10) He went to the University
of California and then to Harvard after he got well, where he earned a master’s degree.
(11) Although Howard was primarily a playwright, he was also a screenwriter.
(12) He wrote the screenplay for the film classic Gone With the Wind, for which he
won an Academy Award.
Back to Table of Contents
Read this sentence.
He went to the University of California and
then to Harvard after he got well, where
he earned a master’s degree.
What is the best way to rewrite the sentence to improve the placement of modifiers?
A
After he got well, he went to the University of California and then to Harvard, where he earned a master’s degree.
B
He went to the University of California and then to Harvard, where he earned a master’s degree after he got well.
C
He went after he got well to the University of California and then to Harvard, where he earned a master’s degree.
D
To the University of California he went and then to Harvard, where he earned, after he got well, a master’s degree.
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions (Performance Level: Proficient)
– Question 07
The following is a rough draft of a student’s essay. It contains errors.
The Excitement of Murals
(1) The name Los Tres Grandes, or “The Big Three,” refers to three artists who started the first major modern art movement that began outside of Europe. (2) When people think of art, they frequently think of European countries like Italy, Spain, and France.
(3) They think of Michelangelo, Monet, and Picasso. (4) Mexico, however, should also
be mentioned in the same breath, thanks to the following artists Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
(5) In the early part of the twentieth century, these three artists began a new art
form called Mexican Muralism. (6) Rather than create paintings that would be housed
in homes or museums and be seen by only a small number of people, the muralists
used prominent public buildings as their canvases. (7) Their murals contained images
of important social issues of their time and were painted in mostly neutral colors.
(8) In the 1920s and 1930s, these artists traviled to the United States and painted
murals in major cities like Los Angeles and New York. (9) In the 1960s and 1970s,
Mexican Muralism had a rebirth in the southwestern part of the United States. (10) This
happening was called the Chicano Mural Movement. (11) The Chicano Mural Movement again used public buildings on which to create images. (12) Many of these works
of art captured and expressed a unique culture and heritage. (13) A large number of
these striking murals can still be seen in California, Texas, and Arizona.
Back to Table of Contents
Which word from the essay is spelled incorrectly?
A
B
C
D
frequently
prominent
traviled
heritage
Back to Table of Contents
Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 08
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman, were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked
in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon
reading the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was
well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Back to Table of Contents
5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Read this sentence from paragraph 2 of the report.
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked
as a printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher.
What is the correct way to rewrite this sentence using parallel structure?
A
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a printer’s apprentice, he had worked as a compositor, and a teacher.
B
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a printer’s apprentice, a compositor, and a teacher.
C
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a printer’s apprentice, and a compositor, and also worked as a teacher.
D
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a printer’s apprentice, as a compositor, and had worked as a teacher.
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Grade 10: English-Language Arts
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
(Performance Level: Basic) – Question 09
The following is a rough draft of a student’s report. It contains errors.
Eurlene Jarzembek
English
Mr. Carter
September 4, 2003
Walt Whitman: America’s Poet
1
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received
most of his education outside of the classroom. His parents, Walter and Louisa Whitman, were uneducated but hard working people. At the age of eleven, he worked
in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon
reading the works of prominent authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was
well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known and endearing poets.
2
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a
printer’s apprentice, worked as a compositor, and a teacher. Despite his aversion to
teaching, he excelled in the profession, developing an amicable relationship with his
students; he even allowed them to address him by his first name. He also developed
fresh teaching techniques and learning games to help his students with spelling and
arithmetic. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue a full-time
career as a journalist and poet.
3
When Walt Whitman first emerged as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, was
so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman
published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
4
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in
a form called thought-rhythm, or parallelism, in which his goal was to mimic the
movement of the sea and the transitory nature of human emotion. A recurrent
theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman deveates
from conventional patterns of rhyme and meter to create a unique rhythm and
a multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
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5
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt
he was fiercely patriotic” (Ryan 42). In his prose-like verse, he used slang and various
personas, or voices, to create a sense of national unity. Using a process known as skaz, he
also incorporated national idioms into his writing.
6
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately
as he has absorbed it” (Ryan 42). Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and persona of America.
Works Cited
Adams, Wesley. The Many Faces of Walt Whitman. London: Bungalow Publishing, 1998.
Moseley, Carrie. Walt Whitman: A Poet for All Time. New York: Standard Books, 2002.
Ryan, Tom. Whitman: An American Voice. Chicago: Noland, 1999.
Stevens, Constance. “Stylistic Innovations in the Poetry of Walt Whitman.” Poetry Today 12
(2000): 27–37.
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
In his work, Whitman deveates from
conventional patterns of rhyme and
meter to create a unique rhythm and a
multi-layered, but truly American, voice.
Which underlined word in the sentence is spelled incorrectly?
A
B
C
D
deveates
conventional
rhyme
unique
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